Jimmy Kimmel not only asked people on Hollywood Boulevard to tell us their password, but they complied! President Obama just unveiled a number of proposals to crack down on hackers, that he will reveal in his State of the Union Speech on Tuesday.
It’s great that the government is working on this, but we need to do a better job of protecting ourselves. So Jimmy sent a camera out onto Hollywood Boulevard to ‘help’ people by asking them to tell us their password…And they did it! When a nice stranger with a microphone told them they were being questioned about online security, people cheerfully shared their passwords and security question answers on camera. I was surprised to learn that the most common password is simply ‘password123.’
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One man…Just one, gave me hope! When asked for his password, he refused, and said “I cannot do that!” All the reporter had to do was to lie to him, and say: “We all need to know what it is, so we can tell you if it’s strong or not.” He bought that lame excuse, and spilled his information all over Hollywood Boulevard, and with Jimmy Kimmel’s audience everywhere.
The last man interviewed is priceless. Asked what a good Italian password would be, he shares that it’s his grandmother’s name. He then seems happy to fondly share his grandma’s name, which is Maria. The face palm you see, is Maria’s grandson realizing he has just disclosed his password! He was one of the few, if not the only one who realized he’d blown it.
Of course, you needn’t share the answers to your security questions on television to put yourself in peril. Often, these very things are the information that Facebook nags you relentlessly to share with the world at large. Oh, and please – you can do better than ‘password123’ be creative and lose your password frequently, like the rest of us!